Report: UCLA Men's Basketball Schedules Home-and-Home With Maryland

The Bruins and Terrapins will play in College Park in December before rematching in Westwood next season.

The Bruins are planning a cross-coastal, home-and-home battle for the upcoming two seasons.

UCLA men’s basketball has reportedly scheduled a series with Maryland set to begin Dec. 14 in College Park, with the return game in 2023 taking place in Westwood, according to CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein. The Bruins already have a few multi-team non-conference events planned for 2022-23, but this is their first standalone game announced.

There have been eight matchups all-time between UCLA and Maryland, with the Bruins taking the win in six of them.

Most recently, the Bruins defeated the Terrapins by a score of 71-59 in 2007, when Kevin Love notched a double-double. Back in the 2000 NCAA tournament, No. 6 seed UCLA upset No. 3 seed Maryland 105-70 to clinch a spot in the Sweet 16 behind the efforts of Earl Watson and Jason Kapono.

UCLA has not played in College Park since 1982, losing that game by one point.

Maryland will have a new coach for the upcoming campaign, with former Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard taking over for Mark Turgeon, who was fired mid-season this past year.

Willard and coach Mick Cronin have experience against each other from both of their days in the Big East. From 2010 to 2013, while Cronin was with Cincinnati, the Bruins’ current coach defeated Seton Hall three times.

The longtime college basketball coaches also have three years of experience coaching together. While under the guidance of Rick Pitino at Louisville from 2001 to 2003, Cronin and Willard were assistants before joining the head coaching ranks.

Willard coached with Pitino starting in 1997 with the Boston Celtics and stayed with him at Louisville until 2007 when he took his first head coaching job at Iona – where Pitino currently is at the helm 15 years later.

The 47-year-old is taking over a Terrapins program that has been in a rebuilding state for the past two seasons. After finishing first in the Big Ten in 2020, the Turgeon-led squad finished seventh in 2021 and 10th in 2022.

Nonconference scheduling tendencies changed as well during that stretch, with COVID-19 also playing a part. Outside of non-conference tournament action, Maryland did not play a standalone game against high-major opposition in either of the past two seasons. However, in 2022-23, Willard has already scheduled contests against Tennessee, UCLA and is guaranteed to play against Providence or Miami at the Hall of Fame Tip-Off.

UCLA has a non-conference showdown scheduled against Kentucky as part of the CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden three days after the game at Maryland. The Bruins are also set to participate in the Roman Main Event in Las Vegas, where they will face off against two of Baylor, Illinois or Virginia.

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